This book offers a fresh and rounded perspective on the English Revolution of the 1640s. It uses detailed evidence to show how the economic requirement for parliament's services underpinned a demand for political change. It suggests that this took shape through a working 'discourse' of ideas about the status of representative forms.

Here is an invaluable, user-friendly and compact compendium packed with facts and figures on the seventeenth century – one of the most tumultuous and complex periods in British history. From James I to Queen Anne, this Companion includes detailed information on political, religious and cultural developments as well as military activity, foreign affairs and colonial expansion. Chronologies, biographies, documents, maps and genealogies, and an extensive bibliography navigate the reader through this fascinating and formative epoch as the book details the key events and themes of the era including: the English Civil War and its military campaigns the Gunpowder Plot, Catholic persecution and the influence of Puritanism imperial adventures in America, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean Scotland and the Act of Union, 1707 the Irish Confederate wars and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland the Great Fire of 1666 and the rebuilding of London biographies of key figures, including women, artists, architects, writers and scientists the Restoration and the revival of drama. With complete lists of offices of state, an extensive glossary of key constitutional, political and religious terminology, and up-to-date thematic annotated bibliographies to aid further research, this student-friendly reference guide is essential for all those interested in the Stuart Age.

The survey resumes the comparative history with an analysis of provincial rebellions in Early Modern Europe. It concludes with an extended treatment of the epoch's four major revolutionary civil wars. (Vol. 1 covered Society, States, and Early Modern Revolutions: Agrarian and Urban Rebellions)

Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture is a comprehensive companion to The Collected Works of Thomas Middleton, providing detailed introductions to and full editorial apparatus for the works themselves as well as a wealth of information about Middleton's historical and literary context. It will be indispensable to scholars of Renaissance literature as well as essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the book in early modern Europe.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury, was a giant on the English political scene of the later seventeenth century. Despite taking up arms against the king in the Civil War, and his active participation in the republican governments of the 1650s, Shaftesbury managed to retain a leading role in public affairs following the Restoration of Charles II, being raised to the peerage and holding several major offices. Following his dismissal from government in 1673 he then became de facto leader of the opposition faction and champion of the Protestant cause, before finally fleeing the country in 1681 following charges of high treason. In order to understand fully such a complex and controversial figure, this volume draws upon the specialised knowledge of nine leading scholars to investigate Shaftesbury's life and reputation. As well as re-evaluating the well-known episodes in which he was involved - his early republican sympathies, the Cabal, the Popish Plot and the politics of party faction - other less familiar themes are also explored. These include his involvement with the expansion of England's overseas colonies, his relationship with John Locke, his connections with Scotland and Ireland and his high profile public reputation. Each chapter has been especially commissioned to give an insight into a different facet of his career, whilst simultaneously adding to an overall evaluation of the man, his actions and beliefs. As such, this book presents a unique and coherent picture of Shaftesbury that draws upon the very latest interdisciplinary research, and will no doubt stimulate further work on the most intriguing politician of his generation.

A major new study of the kingship of James VI and I and Charles I in Scotland, England and Ireland, from 1567 to the outbreak of the civil war in 1642. Drawing on extensive research, Tim Harris sheds new light on the problems that afflicted the early Stuart monarchy - and why ultimately all three kingdoms were to rise in rebellion against Stuart rule. Integrating high politics with low, Harris examines domestic and foreign policy, constitutional and religiousconflict, propaganda and public opinion, government policing methods, popular unrest, and collective forms of resistance in this gripping new account of one of the most important and exciting periods ofBritish and Irish history.